Defenders as Midfielders, Midfielders as Defenders. Barcelona meets Real Madrid

Two of the largest clubs in the world, if not the largest, locked together in a terrific rivalry, which we call El Classico. Both with young, dynamic managers at the helm both revolutionizing the game of football, trying desperately to get a step ahead of each other. But today, I realized two evolutions both made in Spain, one at each club, which if combined could tackle the false nine.

Midfielders as Defenders (Barcelona)

Pep Guardiola, ” In order for the attackers to succeed and appear in the newspapers, [they] need a good ball from the midfield and they, to do so, need a good ball from their defenders. ” In the search for getting the good ball from the defenders, Guardiola has moved midfielders into defence, these players then can use the passing ability, composure on the ball and creativity they cultivated playing as midfielder, to dictate the play until it get’s passed to one Barcelona’s array of midfield generals. Or that is one interpretation, the other, less romantic but more likely, is that in desperation that was Barcelona’s defender crisis last year, the previously underused Javier Mascherano deputised.  This turned out extremely well, with the aforementioned good ball from defence to midfield and from that the masterplan evolved. The romantic in me believes it’s the prior. Either way it certainly had something to do with the influence of the evergreen Marcelo Bielsa.

The result of this tactical change is even more creativity, as shown by the more expansive passing game of Busquets, in comparison to his defensive partner Gerard Pique, from the UCL Quarter Final Second Leg vs Shakhtar (as shown above thanks to the excellent Total Football App). This obviously would have many advantages for any side, first the centre back is generally not closed down greatly, this would give a creative player space to thrive in. Of course, the opposition manager may react on realising your stand-in centreback was dictating play by getting his players to close him down more, this though would also have its advantage though. Once the opposition has another player to focus, by default your midfielders will be given more time and therefore exert more of an influence over the game.

Defenders as Midfielders (Real Madrid)

The False Nine is the tactical evolution on everyone lips, with Lionel Messi flourishing in the role for Barcelona, however in Madrid’s two best performances against Barcelona, the UCL second leg and the Copa Del Rey final, there was one shared feature, Pepe played as an anchorman. The area just outside the box is, in my opinion, the most important zone in many game’s and especially playing against a false nine of the stature of Messi, who Mourinho learned to his cost in the 5-0 drubbing, can be lethal given space. As well as Messi, Pedro, Villa, Iniesta and Xavi play clever passes around this area, before one of them pulls the trigger and slides in a team-mate. Pepe’s presence in this area though was a major reason that in both games, the only goal Barcelona scored was due to a chipped ball over the top by Busquets, bypassing the aforementioned zone. It is of the same logic as the false nine, just as a striker withdrawn has more space and so is more effective, a defender pushed forward can tackle more players as they have less positional responsibility and so is more effective

It is therefore clear that against sides which play the false nine, putting a traditional centreback forward into the midfield removes the extra space found by withdrawing the striker. However, you may ask Messi has been making fools of holding midfielder his entire career, why is this now an issue? And the answer similar is that a player trained to play as a centreback often has far superior anticipation, strength and aggression, learned through years of playing against both muscular and agile strikers.

However, there is of course a downside, the classic defensive midfielder, even the destroyer tends to have some passing ability, whereas the classic stopper, think Jack Charlton doesn’t. However, although this is the problem it depends on the player and there are many a stopper who can pass just as well as Makelele could.

Combining the two

Using a centreback as a midfielder as shown above vastly increases your defensive strength, as shown above, however it does mean a team has fewer true midfielders, at home on the ball. The midfielder in defence will offer more creativity and better passing from deep to a side, but could weaken an otherwise muscular defence. That they are completely compatible, is as blindingly obvious as Guardiola is cool. They cover each others disadvantages, and leave only advantages.

So how would it for the work? For the example I have used an example of a hypothetical game between Manchester United and Barcelona, Man United using Ferdinand in holding midfield and Carrick in central defense.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Iniesta is on the ball(see Figure 1), Sanchez, Messi and Villa are all in advanced positions. Iniesta plays the ball to Messi, who is in some space but Ferdinand is relatively close to him. Once he receives the ball he is immediately closed down by Ferdinand, before any momentum is built, he is muscled off the ball by Ferdinand (see Figure 2). Once Ferdinand has won the ball, he doesn’t complicate things laying the ball off to Carrick, who takes a touch and plays a pinpoint pass drawing the run of the advanced Rafael (see Figure 3) and setting up a promising counter attack.

This is of course the ideal situation , it is of course possible that Messi can dribble past Ferdinand and play a ball to Villa, or play a one-touch pass before Ferdinand meets him. Either way all that would happen is that Carrick would close down Villa and Ferdinand could naturally drop into his position in the defence, Messi is then still outnumbered in the middle.

This is another advantage of playing Ferdinand in Midfield, his defensive awareness means that the full back can both play,in advanced positions as Ferdinand can drop into defence with either Carrick and Vidic closing down the winger as aforementioned.

Hopefully, this article has provoked thought, and in my opinion this could be an extremely successful  method of countering the False Nine, however it should only generally be played against the False Nine or teams who only have pacey strikers, because there is a danger that in trying to counter a new evolution, one forgets the dangers of the classical centre forward and a central midfielder could get completely outclassed in the air by the likes of Julio Cruz or Nikola Zigic.

EduinJBL

4-1-3-1-1 Attractive, Safe Football

A diagram of my 4-1-3-1-1 with the Off-the-Ball Movements.

I shall post first, in the hope of kick-starting the site, for an introduction to the site or if you want to get involved please visit the about page, here.

It has long frustrated me that it is assumed that attractive and defensively safe football are assumed to be mutually exclusive. My frustration led me to think up this tactic in an attempt to balance attacking fluidity with defensive positioning.  The objective is still as with the majority of lower clubs to snatch a goal or two and keep a clean sheet. However the aim is for this to be done through possession, passing football.

The Defence

The defence is basically a stopper-cover combination, with attacking fullbacks and an anchorman in midfield, who drops into defense if a defender is off attacking. It is based upon a mixed marking in which fullbacks mark there wingers closely unless they cut inside in which case they pass them on to the defensive midfielder, aswell as this one striker will always be nearly man marked by the stopper, although if they drop deep they are also passed on the defensive midfielder.

The defensive line and the defenders are stationed roughly on the edge of the area as this allows more cover against pacy offences. Usually defending deep allows a team to control the key zone just outside the box and often score from long range, this though is not the case due to the disruptive defensive midfielder who has to be a powerful, hard tackling. Together with the carrileros who I will come on to later, this area is already protected. However, one layer of defence is not acceptable in this age of football and so if the midfield is beaten (usually by wingers cuttting inside or long balls) ,  the stopper centreback will push forward and close down the threat, while the left covering centreback will sit back and be ready to mop up a through-ball, or tackle the attacker if they dribble past the stopper. The full backs are responsible for the majority of width within the entire side, both attacking and defending, they usually tightly mark the opposing winger or wide midfielder however, due to their attacking role there are times when they are stranded and a pacy winger gets the ball then what I call the trickle system is activated.

The Trickle System

The Trickle System is the name I have given to the idea, of the total footballist defensive strategy that I would put forward if I were a Football Manager. It is called the trickle system as it relies on the players taking up other roles briefly, so that the space ‘trickles from a very dangerous area, until the  displaced player can slot in. It is illustrated by the images below:

Figure 1

Figure 2

The red team are operating my 4-1-3-1-1, the blue’s a standard  4-2-3-1.  As you can see in Figure 1,my rightback has advanced however the ball has been lost and he finds himself completely out of position. His space on the right and the opposition left winger is completely free to utilise this free space, all that is needed is one pass.

However in Figure 2 the their left winger has been closed down by the Anchorman, this though vacates his area on the edge of the box, however the right carrilero has taken up his role and is watching the opposing AM. The carrilero’s role to aid breaking up play will still be less effective with only one player doing it, so ideally the rightback, would pick up this role, but in this figure he hasn’t quite got back yet. Despite this the situation is far less dangerous, than in Figure 1, although there is still some risk as often the DMC is less pacey than the rightback and so could be exposed by the opposition left winger. The system would not only work in this way the defensive midfielder could also drop into centre back allowing one of the centrebacks to close down  the opposition player. The Trickle System would also be activated if the covering centreback loses the ball when he dribbles out of defense, with the anchorman slotting into defense.

The Midfield

The Attacking Midfielder, although being a midfielder has a false nine and false ten combination with the Striker so I shall leave that until later. The defensive midfielder is an anchorman, who is responsible for disrupting the opposition’s play as much as possible and dropping into defense when a player is missing as shown above, he keeps his passing relatively simple, trying few through balls and rarely dribbling the ball. His role is pretty much to win the ball, and then play it simply to one of the more creatively minded players, either the playmaker or one of the carrileros.

The Carrileros or shuttlers play in a unique role in which they are neither Central Midfielders or wide midfielders, meaning they can add defensive strength down the wings, which would otherwise be left only to the fullbacks. However, when they are attacking they often stay closer and make incisive runs past the striker. They must be everywhere and therefore have masses of stamina. They are given some creative duty, but their main duty, together with the fullbacks is to create overmanned areas both in defense and offense.  They also close down the opposition midfield, and unlike the anchorman they can close down as much as is needed as they are not responsible for any important defensive space.

A diagram of the dribbling movement within the 4-1-3-1-1

The box-to-box playmaker is a replica of the existing role of Luka Modric if slightly more defensive, for a complete explanation see Jonathon Wilson’s article. The role is to create like the classic enganche, however to prevent being marked tightly by an anchorman the playmaker is withdrawn into central midfield, from where he drives into the creative zone between the lines, to do this he must be an impressive dribbler and use short passing combinations such as 1-2s once in this zone though he can completely dictate the offensive play of the team.  However, he is not just a creator, due to his positioning within central midfield rather than between the lines, he can also be a defensive presence, acting in a similar way to the carilleros in defence except staying inside and not defending as wide.

Through having such a packing midfield, the idea is to wrestle control of the game and to a lesser extent, dominate possession. Possession is  important and hence the team will operate short, slow tempo passing. However the opposition is intentionally pushed wide and allowed to retain possession here, and hence the tactic is not quite so furiously possession based as many modern managers are.

The Attack

As aforementioned, the attack centres around a False Nine-False Ten partnership, the false nine is a creative forward who will drop deep to pull out one of the opponents defence and then either lay it of to the playmaker, play in the false nine or a carrilero or use their exceptional technical ability to beat their man if they are not closed down. The false nine is an extremely popular tactical idea and for a more in-depth analysis please see this defensive-minded article. This is a massively important role within the tactic and it requires a special all round player, at any level.

The False Ten is another evolution of the classical enganche, but while the box-to-box playmaker has dropped deeper, the false ten has instead pushed further forward, to become the de facto forward when the false nine has dropped deep, the false ten is a creator, but also a scorer and has to make alot of forward runs, especially in counter-attacks because the carilleros can make it forward in a structured attack but not in a counter attack, due to their defensive role as shuttlers. The False Ten is again a fairly common anachronism, although not quite as popular as the false nine, for a more detailed analysis by the excellent Football Further blog, see here.

Both players are given some defensive responsibility, especially when fighting a 4-1-2-2-1, in which the opposition holding midfielder often has a lot of space and hence the two attackers together have a responsibility to close this player down and of course make sure that the opposition defenders don’t break from defence.

A diagram of my ideal First XI, to use with the tactic, I have banned myself from using L.Messi or C.Ronaldo.

Conclusion

To conclude, I feel I have put forward a tactic which is attractive, if somewhat conservative and is possibly better suited to lower teams who don’t want to play Stoke’s brand of physical football or the ridiculously open football played at Blackpool and West Brom under Tony Mowbray.

Hopefully this will act as a rough template to those who wish to post themselves, but also more importantly provoke debate. If you disagree with me or just wish to talk about this post, please comment.

EduinJBL